On Faith, Politics, and Doing the Right Thing
Faithless
We have a phrase: Giving over to bullies.
Andrew Brown reports for The Guardian:
While the Archbishop is perfectly willing to reject homophobia from the safety of England, it would seem that he has abandoned his faith in God.
The underlying argument is that if the Church of England does the right thing, satellite communities in Africa face possible retribution. We need not ask that Christians emulate the megalomaniac Apostolic Fathers who prayed for their own murders, but the thing is that God has Its own plan, and if doing the right thing means some people will be upset, that is part of the plan, too.
The Archbishop appears to have no faith in God's Will or Purpose, and all Africans—not just homosexuals—will suffer for that lack.
My proposition for the Archbishop:
To walk in the footsteps of Christ is not supposed to be easy.
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Notes:
Brown, Andrew. "African Christians will be killed if C of E accepts gay marriage, says Justin Welby". The Guardian. April 4, 2014. TheGuardian.com. April 5, 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...s-church-of-england-gay-marriage-justin-welby
Faithless
We have a phrase: Giving over to bullies.
Andrew Brown reports for The Guardian:
African Christians will be killed if the Church of England accepts gay marriage, the archbishop of Canterbury has suggested. Speaking on an LBC phone in, Justin Welby said he had stood by a mass grave in Nigeria of 330 Christians who had been massacred by neighbours who had justified the atrocity by saying: "If we leave a Christian community here we will all be made to become homosexual and so we will kill all the Christians."
"I have stood by gravesides in Africa of a group of Christians who had been attacked because of something that had happened in America. We have to listen to that. We have to be aware of the fact," Welby said. If the Church of England celebrated gay marriages, he added, "the impact of that on Christians far from here, in South Sudan, Pakistan, Nigeria and other places would be absolutely catastrophic. Everything we say here goes round the world."
This reasoning has until now been kept private, although both Welby and his predecessor, Rowan Williams, anguished about it in private.
"I have stood by gravesides in Africa of a group of Christians who had been attacked because of something that had happened in America. We have to listen to that. We have to be aware of the fact," Welby said. If the Church of England celebrated gay marriages, he added, "the impact of that on Christians far from here, in South Sudan, Pakistan, Nigeria and other places would be absolutely catastrophic. Everything we say here goes round the world."
This reasoning has until now been kept private, although both Welby and his predecessor, Rowan Williams, anguished about it in private.
While the Archbishop is perfectly willing to reject homophobia from the safety of England, it would seem that he has abandoned his faith in God.
The underlying argument is that if the Church of England does the right thing, satellite communities in Africa face possible retribution. We need not ask that Christians emulate the megalomaniac Apostolic Fathers who prayed for their own murders, but the thing is that God has Its own plan, and if doing the right thing means some people will be upset, that is part of the plan, too.
The Archbishop appears to have no faith in God's Will or Purpose, and all Africans—not just homosexuals—will suffer for that lack.
My proposition for the Archbishop:
Since some would inevitably use Christ's gift to harm, kill, and suppress people, perhaps He should have honored God by not doing the right thing, saving His own life, and leaving humanity to Sin.
To walk in the footsteps of Christ is not supposed to be easy.
____________________
Notes:
Brown, Andrew. "African Christians will be killed if C of E accepts gay marriage, says Justin Welby". The Guardian. April 4, 2014. TheGuardian.com. April 5, 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...s-church-of-england-gay-marriage-justin-welby